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A Recipe for Adversity:
Take one small Caribbean island,
Toss in an erupting volcano,
Bring slowly to the boil,
Whisk in three hurricanes,
Sprinkle with hundreds and thousands of earthquakes,
Simmer gently for two decades or longer,
Now live there!

‘An enchanting slice of Paradise’ is how the travel brochures described Montserrat in 1995. The tiny Caribbean island was advertised as ‘a piece of heaven on earth’. A romantic tourist destination with beautiful tropical scenery and a laid-back lifestyle. A relaxed retreat where visitors were assured of a warm and friendly welcome. Millionaires rubbed shoulders with the locals and pop legends like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Sting, Phil Collins, and Elton John came to record their latest albums.

Then, on the morning of Tuesday 18th July 1995, everything changed. After 350 years of dormancy the volcano in the Soufriѐre Hills above the capital of Plymouth stirred awake. On that first day a sulphurous smell filled the air, ashy steam was vented high into the sky and a roaring sound came from the hills. The authorities were caught completely unprepared and struggled to cope with the unfolding crisis. The island went into shock. This was only the beginning. As volcanic activity steadily increased Montserratians were thrown into panic. Half the population were evacuated from the island and the remainder fled in terror to northern Montserrat trying to escape the angry volcano. Life would never be the same again.

This is a personal diary of the first three years of the eruption (1995 to 1998) and concludes with a detailed summary of the years 1999 to 2015. Twenty years later and the Soufriѐre Hills Volcano is still active. The book is a powerful and graphic description of the realities of living with an unpredictable and extremely dangerous volcano, with the added hazard of several hurricanes.

My Review:

Devastating yet real, courageous people living life in Montserrat. That sums up this book, yet it doesn’t. This diary covers a span of time when the author and her husband lived on the island. Happy island life, beachy nice, yet a cloud loomed ahead of each person. This is living with a volcano, an active volcano, one that kills, one that literally moves mountains, or rather blows mountains down while forming new ones. Three years of living amid a cloud of heavy dust and ash, heavy flows of ash, loss of lifestyle previously known, became real. I can’t imagine living on an island in these horrible conditions. One could only live moment by moment, as that was how unpredictable the volcanic activity truly was. Lally writes that about 5,000 still live on this island. That’s stamina. To rebuild hotels, businesses, docks, homes, and more is more of a stoic nature of a person rather than the opposite. I know I could not do it. Even a lovely island devoid of active volcanos, I can’t live on due to the humidity. Add ash into that, and one must wonder what the true effects were post each ash cloud. Masks only do so much. I applaud those who continue on, persistent in their island life. This book has the nitty gritty of what life was like each day.